East Peoria baby’s suffocation death ruled a homicide

Tuesday

Apr 22, 2014 at 3:53 PMApr 22, 2014 at 9:44 PM

Zach Berg Journal Star news reporter

PEORIA — A Peoria County coroner’s jury ruled the suffocation of a 4-month-old East Peoria girl a homicide Tuesday, breaking the quiet that’s surrounded a police investigation into the death since January.

The infant had suffered multiple rib fractures and bruises to her head and back before she died, according to autopsy results. The night of her death she was found on the floor with a baby blanket wrapped around her neck.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case of Aspen Neal, who was pronounced dead at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center shortly after she was found unconscious in a Springfield Road residence early Jan. 3.

Relatives of the child’s mother, however, were “very satisfied” with the inquest verdict, said Ivy Henderson, who identified herself as the infant’s grandmother.

The infant was the daughter of Whitney Neal and Joshua Tucker, both of East Peoria.

While Neal attended the inquest, Tucker, 30, has been in custody since late March on charges of aggravated battery and domestic battery in the case that was filed in mid-February.

His daughter was found suffocated on the floor next to a couch where “a parent” and another child had been sleeping, according to inquest testimony.

East Peoria Detective Ryan Crawford testified that because of the ongoing investigation, he could not state which parent was sharing the room with the baby the morning of her death.

Tazewell County State’s Attorney Stewart Umholtz was unavailable for comment Tuesday. He’s stated in the past he generally will not comment on pending criminal cases.

Aspen was last seen alive about midnight, sleeping in a motorized baby swing with a blanket around her in the apartment’s living room near the couch where the adult and child slept, Ingersoll told the jury.

Four hours later the baby was found unconscious, lying face down on blankets on the floor, with a pink blanket around her neck.

Ingersoll said there was no evidence the swing could have ejected the infant onto the floor, nor of any “hanging injury” stemming “through the actions of the swing or the child herself.”

Aspen had “multiple fractures of the ribs and extremities, healing and recent-appearing,” Ingersoll read from a statement. “There were recent bruises of the back and back of the head that are inconsistent with multiple accidental causes, and more consistent with blunt trauma or pressure applied to those areas of her body.”

The jury deliberated 20 minutes. When Ingersoll announced the verdict, a woman, whom Henderson later identified as the infant’s “stepmother,” sobbed, crying, “Oh, no, no, no.”

The woman who identified herself as the baby’s mother left quietly and declined to comment.